The End of Ancient Christianity (Canto Book)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: First Edition, Reprint, 1/12/2008
EAN 9780521339490, ISBN10: 0521339499
Paperback, 280 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
This book is concerned with one central historical problem: the nature of the changes that transformed the intellectual and spiritual horizons of the Christian world from its establishment in the fourth century to the end of the sixth. The End of Ancient Christianity examines how Christians, who had formerly constituted a threatened and beleaguered minority, came to define their identity in a changed context of religious respectability in which their faith had become a source of privilege and power.
Preface
Abbreviations
Part I. The Crisis of Identity
1. Introduction
2. A great multitude no man could number
3. Conversion and uncertainty
4. Augustine
a defence of Christian mediocrity
5. 'Be ye perfect'
Part II. Kairoi
Christian Times and the Past
6. The last times
7. The martyrs and sacred time
8. Secular festivals in Christian times?
9. The christianisation of time
Part III. Topoi
Space and Community
10. Holy places and holy people
11. City or Desert? Two models of community
12. Desert and City
a blurring of frontiers
13. The ascetic invasion
14. Within sight of the end
retrospect and prospect
Sources referred to
Secondary literature referred to
Index.